Subproject 6: Innovative Combustor

All promising approaches for significant NOX emission reduction are on the basis of lean premixing combustion technology. Lean combustion technology operates with an excess of air to significantly lower flame temperatures and consequently significantly reduce NOX formation.

The optimisation of homogeneous fuel-air mixtures is the key to achieve lower flame temperatures and hence lower thermal NOX formation. However, this homogenisation has a strongly adverse effect on combustion lean stability, drastically narrowing the operating and stability range.

Low NOx technology is difficult to scale to various engine sizes. As a consequence, depending on the overall pressure ratio of the particular engine application, different injector and combustor technologies have to be considered.